These elected officials propose the establishment of a leave, which can go up to thirteen working days per year, in the event of incapacitating rules.
Will France follow Spain’s example? The environmental deputies Sandrine Rousseau, Sébastien Peytavie and Marie-Charlotte Garin tabled in the National Assembly, Friday, May 26, a bill for the establishment of menstrual leave. It may be up to thirteen working days per year, “fully supported by the Social Security”, is it specified in the text, which franceinfo was able to consult. We take stock of what this proposal contains.
A work stoppage or the use of telework
Green MPs call for the introduction of a work stoppage of up to thirteen working days a year “posed consecutively or separately, without monthly limit”for the people “disabled menstruation sufferers”. These may be verified by an occupational physician, a general practitioner, a medical specialist or a midwife, who will issue a medical certificate giving the right to stop working.
The stop will be “exempt from waiting days” And “fully covered by health insurance”. In the most serious cases, without specifying which ones, the text provides for a renewal of the judgment “under the same conditions”, once a year, by the doctor. Elected officials also propose to make teleworking accessible in the event of menstrual pain.
Promoting menstrual health at work
The bill provides for better integration of the issue of menstrual and gynecological health in the world of work. Elected officials suggest a “access to adapted sanitary facilities and protections menstrual” And “the organization of the position and working time”. More generally, MEPs call for a “raising the awareness of members of the company or the administration public” On the question. They suggest that it goes through “an obligation to raise awareness by the employer every three years” among the workers.
If the law is passed as such, menstrual and gynecological health will also be part of the prerogatives of occupational medicine. For their part, employers will have to integrate “all gender inequalities” to the professional equality index, which allows companies to rate themselves in order to fight against wage gaps.
Protection against discrimination
Feminist associations have shared their fears about possible discrimination in hiring and in the professional sphere in the event of the adoption of menstrual leave. In response, MEPs propose to include “in labor law and the general civil service code that the state menstrual and gynecological health cannot be discriminated against in life professional”And this, “in terms of recruitment, training, remuneration or career development”.
The text also provides for monitoring of menstrual leave, in the event of entry into force. The government must, every two years, “to draw up an inventory” in a report to be submitted to Parliament and assessed “the consequences of the establishment” of such a device, “especially in terms of professional equality”.
In a press release, the Socialists group welcomed the initiative of the Green MPs, while recalling that it too had tabled a bill on May 10 for the creation of menstrual leave.